HR Boost with Expert Support

• Tap on HR Shared Services to optimise and improve in-house HR operations, and free up management bandwidth
• Implement clearly-defined HR processes and practices, which have been recorded in an employee handbook

Apparel manufacturer Teo Garments may have less than 40 employees in Singapore. However, as these employees form the foundation for business growth, the company wanted to ensure that its HR practices were progressive and sound to attract, motivate and develop its people.

“It is important to develop a strong team locally to support our business expansion internationally,” says Wilson Teo, Managing Director of Teo Garments. “We believe a robust and professional HR function is necessary in a dynamic environment, to cope with the changing expectations and values of our employees.”

Back in 2014, the company found that its HR processes were too time-consuming and tedious. Policies were outdated, and procedures lacked transparency. New people practices, such as overseas travel incentive policies, needed to be established to keep pace with changing business requirements. As a result, a substantial amount of the management’s time was spent resolving issues that arose from these inefficiencies.

Teo Garments

Looking to professionalise and build up the company’s HR function, Wilson participated in the HR Shared Services programme, administered by SPRING Singapore. The programme allowed Teo Garments to tap into the professional knowledge and skills of full-time HR experts to refresh its people practices over a period of one year.

A team of consultants from Resource Consulting restructured and improved upon Teo Garments’ existing HR processes, in areas such as recruitment, performance appraisal, compensation and benefits, as well as training and development. HR policies were also updated to ensure compliance to current government regulations and legislation. A new employee handbook, which employees can now refer to with greater confidence and ease, was produced.

Employees were also happy with a new performance appraisal system that was rolled out. According to Wilson, the previous system was too complex for employees to appreciate. With the consultants’ inputs, the annual performance appraisal was streamlined to make it more meaningful to staff. To help in management decision-making, the consultants also improved the performance management and appraisal summary reports to provide greater clarity.

Apart from refining existing systems, Resource Consulting also deployed a staff to be based at Teo Garments’ office two days every week to work closely with the company’s employees, familiarising them with the new procedures and practices.

Teo Garments

By the end of the year, the people processes were so entrenched within the company that employees were able to continue running the HR processes systematically and efficiently. This bodes well for Wilson as his staff can now focus on addressing the business’ new needs, while he set his sights on achieving sustainable business expansion for Teo Garments.

“With HR Shared Services, we were able to leverage the knowledge and resources of external experts to introduce HR best practices to our company,” says Wilson. “Everything is now made clear in writing, in the employee handbook; and we have a productive and systematic way of managing our HR to ensure continuity and business growth.”

Benefits and Outcomes

• HR and management are able to focus on strategic people issues
• HR policies that are aligned to government regulations and legislation
• Greater employee satisfaction arising from better HR service delivery and transparency on HR policies and practices